Oona Hathaway @oonahathaway.bsky.social on the gains of an international legal order - and the costs of its abandonment From "1989 to 2014, battle-related deaths from cross-border conflicts averaged less than 15,000 a year". "Beginning in 2014, the average has risen to over 100,000 a year..." 1/6

Another useful analysis on #Venezuela via @voelkerrechtsblog.org voelkerrechtsblog.org/the-u-s-stri...

For those who stress the allegedly exceptional character of the violation of the use of force prohibition and argue that "this time" the norm is really dead, I'd recommend the 1970 article by the late Thomas Franck... #Venezuela www.jstor.org/stable/2198919

Autokratische, rechtlose Machtausübung hat zwar verheerende Kraft. Trotzdem behält gegen einen "Realismus", der die Macht von "soft power" von vornherein für unterlegen erklären will, der Einspruch von Gustav Seibt @gustavseibt.bsky.social (vom letzten April) weiter Gewicht. 1/2

Ziblatt: "January 6 in Historical Perspective" "Democracies are often undone not only by successful coups, but by the normalization of failed ones." 1/6

J.-W. Müller: "January 6 and the Possessive White Male" "[T]he motives of the participants can be gleaned from their own statements. Like far-right movements everywhere today, the insurrectionists were driven by resentment of others’ emancipation." 1/10

NYT Editorial Board: "Trump Is the Jan. 6 President" "Five years ago, on Jan. 6, 2021, a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol, hoping to overturn the result of the 2020 ... election. The Trump era seemed to have ended in one of the most disgracefully anti-American acts in the nation’s history." 1/14

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"A deeper insight into the day’s events comes from the German philosopher Eva von Redecker. Inspired by the medical phenomena of phantom pain and phantom limbs, she recently coined the term “phantom possession” to make sense of our era’s new authoritarianism."

Friedrich Weißbach @fjweissbach.bsky.social: "Der Laudator Dieter Thomä charakterisierte Benhabibs praktische Philosophie als Ausdruck dreier Haltungen: Beweglichkeit, Geduld und Widerstandsfähigkeit. Statt an den eigenen Standpunkten auf Biegen und Brechen festzuhalten ..." 1/8

This is one of my favorite law review articles of all time. You should read it, if you haven't yet. stanfordlawreview.org/wp-content/u...

Regarding United States Action in Venezuela

I wrote a piece about two years ago that feels scarily relevant to today. Sometimes you just want to be wrong. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

"In particular, how the world community reacts ... in the coming weeks and months will matter mightily." "[L]ukewarm responses" (like those of Germany and the EU) "are ultimately untenable, and much will turn on how these positions resolve in the coming days." 12/12

Justina Uriburu @justinauriburu.bsky.social and Julian Arato @aratojulian.bsky.social: "Trump’s Illegal Attack on Venezuela and Its Consequences" The attack "was plainly illegal" - "a flagrant and grave violation" of Article 2(4) of the UN Charter, "and a severe breach of US law". 1/12

Please read: www.ejiltalk.org/trumps-illeg...

Yes it is quite the episode! Starting the New Year off with an incredible slate of experts @becingber.bsky.social @kimlanelaw.bsky.social @skyeperryman.bsky.social @democracyforward.org @profmmurray.bsky.social @leahlitman.bsky.social @kateshaw.bsky.social

Kolter: "Nach venezolanischen Angaben wurden ... über 80 Menschen getötet, darunter auch Zivilisten." "Der Einsatz wird von Völkerrechtlern international mit großer Einhelligkeit als Verstoß gegen das Gewaltverbot aus Art. 2 Nr. 4 der UN-Charta geächtet."

Some folks could benefit from actually taking a look at the Monroe Doctrine (and we should teach it in American Political Thought)

Der Angriff auf Venezuela und die Entführung Maduros verstoßen klar gegen die UN-Charta. Ob er Immunität genießt, ist nicht ganz so klar. Wichtig sind jetzt deutliche Verurteilungen der Verletzung des Gewalt- und Interventionsverbots durch andere Staaten. www.zdfheute.de/video/zdfheu...

Rath: Wenn der Bundeskanzler "die US-Intervention in Venezuela nicht als völkerrechtswidrig verurteilt, verliert er die Glaubwürdigkeit, Russland und China zu kritisieren".

Oona Hathaway @oonahathaway.bsky.social on the "Brazen Illegality of Trump’s Venezuela Operation" (and its revival of the Monroe Doctrine) "The dangerous thing here is the idea that a President can just decide that a leader is not legitimate and then invade the country ..." 1/9

Für @zdfde.bsky.social heute live habe ich versucht, die völkerrechtlichen Fragen des Vorgehens der USA gegen #Venezuela zu beantworten. Short version: Es ist nicht so "komplex", wie der Bundeskanzler meint, sondern klare Verstöße gegen die #UN-Charta (ab 28:41). www.zdf.de/play/magazin...

My latest with @ichotiner.bsky.social.

Exzellentes Interview meines Kollegen @heinrichwefing.bsky.social mit dem Völkerrechtler Kai Ambos über die rechtlichen Voraussetzungen und Folgen der Entführung Maduros - und die Konsequenzen für Europa. Freebie. www.zeit.de/politik/ausl...

"Spain did not recognize the Maduro regime. But neither will it recognize an intervention that violates international law"

The same is true for constitutional law. It’s critical—quite literally for purposes of future constitutional meaning—that politicians say and be *seen* to be saying that Trump’s actions are illegal + unconstitutional. And ideally that they take formal institutional action grounded in that view.

Goldsmith: "[I]t would not be terribly hard for the Justice Department to write an opinion in support of the Venezuela invasion even if the ... action violates the U.N. Charter. To repeat, that does not mean that the action is in fact lawful—and it pretty clearly isn’t under the U.N. Charter." 1/2

Ryan Goodman: "[T]he Trump administration reportedly relied on a highly controversial 1989 legal memorandum claiming the President does not need to abide by the U.N. Charter as a matter of domestic law." "The 1989 OLC Memo was fundamentally flawed from the start..." 1/3

Ryan Goodman, Maduro Capture Operation and the President’s Duty to Faithfully Execute U.N. Charter www.justsecurity.org/127962/madur...

NYT Editorial Board: "Trump Is the Jan. 6 President" "Five years ago, on Jan. 6, 2021, a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol, hoping to overturn the result of the 2020 ... election. The Trump era seemed to have ended in one of the most disgracefully anti-American acts in the nation’s history." 1/14

Antisemitismusdefinitionen - eine rechtliche Perspektive. Mein Vortrag im Rahmen der Hamburger Ringvorlesung "Israel, Palästina und Deutschland – zwischen Menschenrechten und 'Staatsräson'" lecture2go.uni-hamburg.de/l2go/-/get/v...

Franks on Counterman v. Colorado Mary Anne Franks (George Washington University - Law School) has posted How Stalking Became Free Speech: Counterman v. Colorado and the Supreme Court’s Continuing War on Women on SSRN. Here is the abstract: One of the most devastating, unprincipled, and dangerous…

Miguel de la Riva: "Unter Beobachtern. Voßkuhle antwortet in Wien auf Manow" (FAZ, via H.P.) "Das Buch Manows, den Voßkuhle ansonsten schätze, beurteile er ... als „außerordentlich schwach“ ..." 1/4

Downloads of the Year 2025 Here are ten papers that I found particularly interesting, innovative, or valuable in 2025. Originalism, the Administrative State, and the Clash of Political Theories by J. Joel Alicea The Supreme Court Under Threat: Early Lessons in Judicial Self-Protection by Curtis…

Legal Theory Bookworm Selections for 2025 Here are ten of the selections from the Legal Theory Bookworm that I found most interesting in 2025: The Containment: Detroit, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for Racial Justice in the North by Michelle Adams Contemporary Non-Positivism by Emad H. Atiq…

Die Studie gibt es hier: www.foeps-berlin.org/neuigkeit-de...

TASER: Sicheres Einsatzmittel in unsicheren Lagen? Zur sozialen und rechtl. Einbettung der polizeil. Verwendung von Distanzelektroimpulsgeräten (DEIG) mit V. Leuschner, C. Ohder u. C. Tomerius 20.1.2026 17.00 HWR Berlin, Alt-Friedrichsfelde 60, 6A008 Online meet.hwr-berlin.de/b/lud-xgk-tyc 1/2

Check out this new open access volume on Law&Critique with contributions by @danielloick.bsky.social, @frieder-vogelmann.net, @bennozabel.bsky.social, me & many others: www.nomos-shop.de/en/p/law-cri...

High fashion for 2026.

Danke an alle, die hinter uns stehen. Das gibt uns Kraft für das, was noch kommt. Unsere Mail-Accounts könnten z. B. schon morgen gesperrt werden. Wir sorgen jetzt vor, damit Menschen, die online angefeindet werden, uns weiter erreichen. Unterstützt uns dabei: hateaid.org/spenden/?don...

Bell on Presidential Targeting of the Legal Profession Russell Bell has posted Executive Overreach and the Assault on Judicial Independence: Constitutional Analysis of Presidential Targeting of the Legal Profession on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This study documents a constitutional crisis…

Predictions are difficult. Especially ones about the future. So instead here is an argument for why a firewall/cordon sanitaire to keep the far right from power is not somehow undemocratic.

Theda Skocpol (interviewed by Edwin Amenta) on Academia and U.S. Politics (I.) Sociology vs Political Science Annual meetings: "[T]he sociologists were all running around in sandals, and there were a lot of women. The political science meetings were still mostly men ..." 1/39

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Theda Skocpol : "I would call it a corrupt patrimonial regime. There’s a book by a couple of political scientists [The Assault on the State (Hanson & Kopstein, 2024)] that I find even more convincing than the analyses of some of my historical-institutional allies" @jeffkopstein.bsky.social

In case people tell you that public criticism of the court doesn’t matter, here’s Brett Kavanaugh trying to walk back what he said in the ICE roving patrol case - when he blessed racial profiling & called the stops prompt. He was lambasted; @akalhan.bsky.social coined the term “Kavanaugh stops”

Brett Kavanaugh (September 2025): The facts and how they relate to the law don’t matter. Assume ICE and other federal forces always act with integrity, always respect rights, and consistently impose minimal burden. Brett Kavanaugh (December 2025): Should I not have done that? Was that wrong?

Serwer: "The reason so many of yesterday’s free-speech champions transitioned so easily into today’s pro-Trump censors is that their definition of free speech never included the right of others to talk back." 1/3